These individuals shown below without any due regard raced to the scene and assisted until Paramedics arrived showing what a family should look like or a Wolfpack.

Safety and Risk Manager, Jeff Turner presented these certificates of Appreciation on Thursday at the monthly Safety meeting as a small token of our appreciation.

There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau).

At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second.

This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks.

This means Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second — 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the “flying” reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them—Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance – this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g’s. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he’s dead now. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone…

Take Care of yourselves and each other.

Wolfpack… Out.

The law enforcement effort known as Operation Safe Driver Week is scheduled for Sunday through Saturday, July 10-16. It is a program coordinated by the Commercial Motor Safety Alliance.

Law enforcement officers in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will be taking part. They will be on the lookout for commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers engaging in risky driving. Identified unsafe drivers will be pulled over and issued a citation or warning.

Speeding is the announced focus of this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week.

CVSA cites data released in March from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing that 38,824 lives were lost in traffic crashes nationwide in 2020 – the highest number of fatalities since 2007, according to a news release. The report showed that 38,824 lives were lost in traffic crashes nationwide in 2020. That is the highest number of fatalities since 2007. Although the number of crashes and traffic injuries declined overall, fatal crashes increased by 6.8%.

Speed-related fatalities increased by 17%, NHTSA reported.

Land Line has reported on NHTSA data that showed an increase in traffic fatalities for passenger vehicles as well as large truck operators. Fatal crashes involving at least one truck went up 13%.

Last year, 28,148 commercial motor vehicles and 17,910 passenger vehicles were pulled over during Operation Safe Driver Week. There were 16,863 tickets written and 10,486 warnings issued. Speeding was the most common offense, according to data released last fall.

This enforcement blitz is sponsored by CVSA in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and with support from the motor carrier industry and transportation safety organizations.

After this enforcement event in July, professional truck drivers will face Brake Safety Week on Aug. 21-27. Commercial motor vehicle inspectors are scheduled to conduct brake system inspections (primarily Level IV Inspections) on large trucks and buses throughout North America to identify brake-system violations. LL

The opinion, authored by Justice Lynne J. Boomgaarden, agreed with NCLA that the Commission exceeded its statutory authority when it utilized its comprehensive land-use vision plan—a mere guidance document—and the site plan review process to block Asphalt Specialties Co., Inc (ASCI) from using its land for a limited gravel mining operation. “Counties may only restrict a land use pursuant to zoning,” declared the Court in its opinion. “ASCI’s Lone Tree Creek property is not zoned. The Commission therefore exceeded its statutory authority when it utilized its comprehensive land use plan and the site plan review process to outright deny ASCI use of its land for a limited gravel mining operation.” The Court also ruled that the Commission’s decision to use a vision planning guidance document to stop ASCI’s gravel quarry development was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law.”

The Court’s reversal of the Commission’s decision sends a warning message to other government agencies that openly or tacitly demand compliance with their “vision” or other guidance documents in violation of private property rights. In Wyoming, the ruling should limit the Commission’s ability to force other landowners to comply with their nonbinding guidance documents in the future. NCLA firmly holds that the only mechanism available to constrain the use of private property in such cases is through lawful zoning ordinances—properly and legally enacted by the appropriate elected officials.

NCLA released the following statements:

“I want to thank the Supreme Court of Wyoming for this decision reaffirming individual property rights—and doing so in a plainspoken manner which ordinary citizens can understand. I also want to give Harriet Hageman and the New Civil Liberties Alliance my heartfelt thanks for taking up this case. As has become ever more apparent in the past year, it is important to stand up for individual rights—property rights being key amongst them—against the ever-increasing usurpation of these rights by government and regulatory agencies.”

— Dan Hunt, President of Asphalt Specialties Co., Inc.

“NCLA applauds the court’s decision, which corrects the injustice of using legally unenforceable guidance documents to deprive citizens of their civil liberties. The Wyoming Supreme Court easily recognized that the Planning Commission’s decision to prevent ASCI from developing its private property violated the Constitution and Wyoming statutory law. So yes, there really is a Constitution, and when the rights it guarantees are protected and allowed to flourish, we are all better off.”

— Harriet Hageman, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

For more information about this case visit here.

Jay Road resurfacing project begins Monday

Expect travel delays between US 36 and CO 119 on Jay Road. More information is on Boulder County’s Public Works page:

https://www.bouldercounty.org/news/jay-road-resurfacing-project-starts-april-12/

“According to the latest industry survey by NAPA in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), our industry reclaimed 97 million tons of RAP for future use, saving enough landfill space to fill up the dome of the U.S. Capitol 1,223 times.”

“the survey evaluated greenhouse gas emissions, finding RAP usage saved 2.4 million metric tons of CO2e, the equivalent of removing 520,000 passenger vehicles from the road”

NAPA News Article:

Asphalt Industry Upholds Stellar Reputation as Top Recyclers – National Asphalt Pavement Association